21/05: 8 people travelling from Cap Spartel, intercepted by Moroccan Navy after one person died

22.05.2019 / 13:54 / Western Mediterrean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st of May 2019
Case name: 2019_05_21-WM392
Situation: 8 people travelling from Cap Spartel, intercepted by Moroccan Navy after one person died
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Tuesday the 21st of May 2019 at 4:56am CEST the alarmphone shift team was alerted to a boat carrying 8 people, including 2 women – one of whom was pregnant – in distress. The boat had left from Cap Spartel at 10pm local time. At 5:01am we made contact with the boat, the people were scared and asked us to alert the Moroccan Navy (MR), but they were unable to send their position. We alerted MR at 5:30am, who told us that they had already been informed about this case at 2:00am. We managed to make contact with the boat again through a second phone number at 6:16am, and the travellers told us that they could see the Moroccan coast. We passed on this information and the new contact number to MR. At 7:08am we informed the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) and told them our concern about the lack of action from MR. At 7:18am we spoke again with the the boat, there was screaming in the background and we learned that one person had lost consciousness. During this time we tried to help the travellers to send their GPS location, but we kept receiving inaccurate positions from land. At 8:01am we contacted MR who told us that they believed this was a fake distress call, as the contact number which we had given them had not answered their calls. They would be sending their rescue boat to another case. At 8.20am we received a GPS location from the boat which we forwarded to MR and SM. Over the next two hours we were unable to have any of our questions answered by MR or SM, and our calls to the boat couldn’t connect. At 10:34am we saw that there was a commercial ship close (11km) to the position of the boat. We informed the company of the boat via email and phone and appealed for their help. Finally at 3:32pm MR said that they had rescued a boat carrying 8 people, including 2 women. Over the next days we were unable to get confirmation from the travellers. On Thursday the 23rd of May we learned that the travellers had been put in prison after their rescue and were released on Wednesday the 22nd of May. The travellers said that one person (a Cameroonian) from their group had died.

Credibility:

Border police patrols
While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
Coastal radars
Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
Exclusive Economic Zone
Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
Frontex operations
Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
Mobile phone coverage
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
Oil and gas platforms
Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
Search and Rescue Zone
An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
Territorial Waters
A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans